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He looks at me, and what's in his eyes steadies me and terrifies me in equal measure. "I'm good at it. Let it be me."

Denise shakes her head. "Jax."

"I mean it. I'll take the whole thing on my back and I'll smile for the cameras while I do it."

And I stand there in the tunnel, between the man who wants to set a nine-figure future on fire to keep my name clean and I understand something with a terrible, quiet certainty.

The only way to save everyone I love is to make sure neither of them is the one who pays for this.

Which means it has to be me. And it means I can't let him know I've already decided.

I tell Jax I need air and I tell Denise she'll have an answer by morning. And then I walk away from both of them, down a concrete corridor to a stairwell.

I sit on the bottom step and I run my hand over my green sweater. It was supposed to be me and Jax in this together but I know that can’t happen now.

I call my brother's cell phone. He’s in town for the next game with the Blizzards. And I knew he wouldn’t be here but I wish he was.

He picks up my call immediately.

"Cade." The words come out fast, before my nerves can catch them.

"I started it. I made the plan. I propositioned him, not the other way around. I built the whole thing and I dragged him into it. So if you're going to hate somebody over this, you hate me. You leave Jax out of it."

"Don't." His voice breaks. "Don't you dare. Don't you stand in front of him and take the hit."

"Why not?" I press the heel of my hand hard into my eyes. "I can protect you both."

A long, ragged pause on his end, and when he comes back the fury has drained out and what's underneath is grief.

His breath drags. "I’m still so angry I can't see straight, Margot. At both of you. But I will not sit here and watch you set yourself on fire and call it love. I’m holding myself back from heading to the stadium because I don’t know what I’ll do to Jax."

And that’s the whole problem with Cade. He’s the only person alive who’s ever been able to see the entire board.

Which is exactly why I can't tell him the rest.

Because there's a statement sitting in a draft on my phone, and a resignation letter under it, and a version of tomorrow where I take the entire fall, and Jax keeps his deal and his name and his best friend, and my brother gets to forgive him.

"I have to go." I make myself stand up off the cold step.

"Margot." He knows it. "Whatever you're about to do. Don't."

"I love you, Cade. Tell Mom not to worry about the news and that I'm coming home for a little while till this all blows down."

I hang up before he can answer, before he can talk me out of the only move left on the board that saves every single person.

I've already decided.

Chapter 21: Jax

I reach for her and her side of the bed is cold.

I'm up and calling her name, and the apartment gives me back silence.

On the island, pinned flat under my own car keys so I couldn't miss it, is a single sheet of notepaper.

Jax.

By the time you read this it's done. I called Denise and emailed my statement. My statement clears you completely. Sol already called to say Meridian is back on. You keep everything.